Discover Meijer Gardens

Discover Meijer Gardens

Always Growing. Always Beautiful. Always New.

It’s not just the masterpieces of art and nature that delight your senses. Or the surprising silhouettes and endless kaleidoscope of colors and textures that inspire you most. It’s the one, brief, shining moment of clarity about what matters most to you that will bring you back time after time.

Tours, programs and interactive activities are available for visitors throughout the year. Discovery carts are made available periodically so visitors can handle sculptors’ tools and materials, learn about plants in new ways and have hands-on experiences. Printed looking guides lead visitors through changing exhibitions with thought-provoking questions, exhibition overviews and specific things to find. Free public programs for sculpture exhibitions assist visitors in understanding content and ideas through lectures, gallery walks, family activities, DVDs and demonstrations. Check the digital display sign at the admissions desk when you arrive for the day’s activities.

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Sculpture Collection & Exhibitions

Ranked in the top 100 most-visited art museums worldwide by Art Newspaper, the leading publication in global art news, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has grown to become an international destination. The sculpture program features more than 200 works in the permanent collection sited both indoors and outdoors on the 158-acre main campus.

Ranked in the top 100
most-visited art museums
worldwide by Art Newspaper

The permanent collection focuses on works by established and emerging sculptors from the Modern tradition to the present. Earliest works date to the second half of the 19th century with masters such as Carrier-Belluese, Degas, and Rodin. Starting with these masters, the comprehensive presentation includes sculptors from the late 19th century to the present.

Three temporary exhibitions are also developed annually, most curated by and for Meijer Gardens. These special exhibitions are shown within the large indoor galleries and associated indoor and outdoor spaces. The sculpture exhibition program is dedicated to sculpture traditions of all periods and exhibitions have ranged from large-scale presentations of modern masters such as Rodin, Picasso, and Moore to contemporary masters such as George Segal, Oldenburg and van Bruggen, di Suvero, Caro, and Richard Hunt.

The Sculpture Park features significant works of art within a variety of natural settings connected by waterways, meandering paths, lawns, meadows and quiet walkways. Within the Sculpture Park's 30 acres is one of the most comprehensive collections of outdoor sculpture in the world.

Three temporary sculpture exhibitions are developed annually, most curated by and for Meijer Gardens. These special exhibitions are shown within the large indoor galleries and associated indoor and outdoor spaces. The sculpture exhibition program is dedicated to sculpture traditions of all periods and exhibitions have ranged from large-scale presentations of modern masters such as Rodin, Picasso, and Moore to contemporary masters such as George Segal, Oldenburg and van Bruggen, di Suvero, Caro, and Richard Hunt.

Horticulture

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park integrates the experience of striking gardens with fine art. The emphasis is on horticultural displays showcasing a beautiful array of plants appropriate for the Midwest and specialized plants from regions around the world. Presentation ranges from planned and manicured to natural and native.

Within the Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory over 500 species from five continents are displayed in a lush, verdant setting including waterfalls, streams and bridges, as well as varieties of tropical birds.

The Leslie E. Tassell English Perennial and Bulb Garden combines the best of the English border tradition with many native North American plants. This garden is the perfect place to take a stroll, rest on a bench, and take time to smell the flowers.

The Earl and Donnalee Holton Arid Garden is host to a large variety of plants specially adapted to survive in some of the driest environments in the world including the Americas, Australia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Home of the Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts at Meijer Gardens and Tuesday Evening Music Club, the Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater, a garden in its own right, features manicured terraced lawn seating, trees, perennials, bold tropical exotics as well as sculptures by Michele Oka Doner, Sean Henry, Barry Flanagan and Igor Mitoraj.

Tranquility, simplicity and beauty are the very essence of The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden opening in 2015. One of the most revered and deeply appreciated international garden styles, the 8-acre addition will further the organization's dual mission of horticulture and sculpture.

Notable Gardens & Exhibitions

Tranquility, simplicity and beauty are the very essence of The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden opening in 2015. One of the most revered and deeply appreciated international garden styles, the 8-acre addition will further the organization's dual mission of horticulture and sculpture.

Let curiosity be the guide in the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden. Children can follow animal tracks, dig for fossils, sit in a giant bird’s nest, solve the butterfly maze or look through the “viewports” to focus on sculpture. Their imaginations will take off in this interactive garden.

Michigan's Farm Garden focuses on gardening and horticulture as it would have appeared in the 1930's during the Depression era. With heirloom vegetables, flowers and orchard, reminiscent of that time period guests get an understanding of farms when they were truly self-sufficient.

This temporary, annual exhibition features thousands of tropical butterflies from Central and South America, Africa and Asia freely flying in the Tropical Conservatory. Experience butterflies close up and watch them emerge from their chrysalises right before your eyes.

A marvelous exhibition beginning in November and running through the entire month of December and part of January each year. Includes more than 40 trees and displays, over 300,000 lights both indoors and outdoors, choirs, horse-drawn carriage rides, as well as the beloved Railway Garden.

Highlights thousands of flowering chrysanthemums in both interior and exterior venues. Vertical columns of colorful chrysanthemums, a vibrant wall of chrysanthemums, chrysanthemum spheres and beds of colorful plants delight visitors. The largest display of its kind in Michigan.

Included with admission, each Tuesday evening in July and August, Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater hosts local talent in a variety of musical genres. Bring a picnic or choose from fresh fare at the concession counter.